Commercial vehicles, particularly those wherein a tractor and a trailer are used, give the driver particular difficulty when turning or backing up in terms of seeing the rear wheel assemblies. Often these wheels roll up and over curbs or other obstacles which could result in tire damage or even content damage should the load shift severely.
To avoid this problem, it was suggested to provide an illumination system as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,138 entitled “Illumination System For A Semi Trailer Or The Like”. The ingenious solution provided one flood lamp in a position rearward of each of the rear wheel assembly. The lamp projected light from behind the wheels toward the curb and ground adjacent the wheels. The lamps were activated when the respective turn signal was used if the tail lamps were on, accordingly, whenever the vehicle was turning right, the lamp would illuminate on the right side of the trailer and; if turning left, would illuminate on the left side of the trailer. This provided the driver a look at the ground behind and beside the rear wheels, but not directly in front of the wheels which were still in the dark.
Another problem with this method of illuminating the rear wheels was the light or lamp was set up to shine outwardly and this, while clearly illuminating the curb, was blinding to others particularly cars in cross traffic when the trailer made a left hand turn and to some lesser extent blinded the truck driver as the light bounced off his mirror. Secondarily, the illumination assembly placed the lamps in a position that allowed stones to be propelled from the tread of the rear wheels directly onto the lamp. These and other issues made this solution less than desirable.
An even bigger negative aspect was this prior art concept was not an attractive design and was simply a utilitarian solution. This greatly ignored the fact that commercial truck drives enjoy adding decorative features to accent their large investment in their vehicles. Owners of such vehicles will pay for practical solutions, but not at the expense of the appearance of their vehicle.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a unique way to provide superior illumination to the rear wheel assembly illuminating the ground along the outboard side of the rear wheel assembly as well as in front of the tires and behind the tires while avoiding any blinding glare. Secondarily, this illumination device is easily installed onto the trailer in a simple and very cosmetically appealing way to make it an attractive addition to the trailer.
These and other benefits of this illumination device are described as follows.